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26 March 2004 UNISON accepts councils' invitation UNISON, the
union representing Scotland's nursery nurses, has written to the twenty-one councils
still in dispute with nursery nurses to accept the offer of talks with them all
made by Councillor Frank Russell (Chair of the Employers) on their behalf on Monday.
Joe Di Paola (Unison's Scottish Organiser for Local Government) has written
to all the leaders of these councils. He said: "I am saying to these councils,
that in the absence of any approach from CoSLA then we are happy to sit down with
all of them as one separate group to find a Scottish settlement. If the seven
councils named in the press release are representing all councils that haven't
settled as they say they are, why not come together to negotiate?" "If
this is a serious approach and not just an attempt to steal a few headlines, we
are happy to meet them and try to settle this dispute. However, if this is simply
a PR exercise, I don't think the parents whose kids have had their education disrupted
will be too impressed." Angela Lynes, (Chair of UNISON's negotiators) said:
"We want to talk to them about what local deals they were going to match. After
all, there have been eleven separate deals and more offers. If they can all find
the money for 'broadly similar deals' then we want to know what this would be
broadly similar to." The confusion that this suggestion has raised, is
one of the reasons that nursery nurses want a Scotland-wide solution, rather than
the kind of free-for-all that CoSLA has been promoting. ENDS [Note
to Editors: The councils written to are: Angus, Argyll & Bute, City of Glasgow,
City of Edinburgh, City of Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian,
Fife, Inverclyde, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney,
Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, South Ayrshire, West Dunbartonshire, Western Isles,
West Lothian.] For Further Information Please Contact: Joe Di Paola
(Scottish Organiser - Local Govt) 0845 355 0845(w) 07990 505698(m) Angela Lynes
(Chair - UNISON Negotiators) 07979 522606(m) Chris Bartter (Communications Officer)
0845 355 0845(w) 0771 558 3729(m) Index Nursery
Nurse minisite | 
